ELMONT, N.Y. - When you have a 20-horse stable, winning one graded stakes race is a good day. Winning two is huge.
“It was a big day,” trainer Jimmy Toner said. “I was really excited.”
On Saturday, Toner won the Grade 3, $150,000 Athenia Stakes at Belmont with La Cloche, a half-sister to Toner’s Grade 1-winning mare Winter Memories, whom he had to retire earlier this summer.
A few hours later, Toner watched on television as Two Months Rent rallied through the rain to win the Grade 3, $200,000 Hawthorne Derby by a head at 26-1.